Roy Keane hits out at Niall Quinn's 'special treatment' Ireland claims by posting raucous party pics

Roy Keane has hit out at Niall Quinn’s claims that he received ‘special treatment’ on Republic of Ireland duty by posting pictures from a raucous night out with the squad in 1992. 

The pair were Ireland team-mates for several years in the late 1990s and early 2000s and even clashed during the infamous Saipan incident before the 2002 World Cup. 

Midfielder Keane was sent home by then-Ireland manager Mick McCarthy for an expletive-laden rant at the coach criticising the conditions and preparations ahead of the tournament.

Roy Keane has hit out at Niall Quinn’s (right) claims that he received special treatment as an Ireland player by posting some raucous pictures of national team squad partying in 1992

Keane captioned an Instagram post on Thursday with the ‘snake’ emoji whilst criticising Quinn

Quinn backed McCarthy in during the Saipan row and even criticised carried on his criticism on Keane this week by claiming the former midfielder was hypocritical in his rant at the Ireland manager.

That prompted Keane to post some humorous images of Quinn and the rest of the Ireland squad on Thursday night which depicted behind the scenes celebrations during a trip to the United States in 1992. 

The images saw Quinn singing karaoke with Ireland team-mate Kevin Moran while wearing round joke glasses.

Keane posted images of himself (right) partying in the ’92 America trip with Paul McGrath (left)

Quinn (second left) features in more karaoke pictures along with Ray Houghton (second right)

Other pictures show Keane wearing the same pair of glasses while Paul McGrath and Ray Houghton also feature in the snaps. 

Keane captioned the Instagram post: ‘Don’t remember getting any special treatment on this trip – Irish National team USA 1992’ followed by the snake emoji. 

Quinn had claimed earlier this week that Keane was wrong to criticise Ireland’s preparations ahead of the 2002 World Cup as the midfielder was barely there at training due to his role as Manchester United’s key man.

Quinn criticised Keane’s (right) hypocrisy in the 2002 Saipan row with Mick McCarthy (left) 

Quinn (left) claimed a deal was made by Sir Alex Ferguson (middle) to give Keane (right) time off during Ireland international duty

The former forward, who appointed Keane as Sunderland manager while he was Black Cats chairman later on in his career, claimed a deal between McCarthy and Red Devils Sir Alex Ferguson meant the midfielder was given time off during international breaks. 

Quinn told a Virgin Media documentary this week: ‘We found it difficult that he (Keane) would be so alarmingly aghast at what was going on out there. 

‘Given that for all our international matches for the last couple of years, he was only coming in sometimes on the Tuesday and we were all in on the Saturday.

Quinn backed McCarthy in the 2002 row that saw Keane sent home before the World Cup

‘So, he had this specialist status, this privileged status in the team, for a couple of years. So, it was difficult I think for him to say “things aren’t done right” when he wasn’t there all the time.

‘But he got special privilege. Mick McCarthy and Sir Alex Ferguson did a deal – “Oh, you can have him later on near the matches, but he stays with us ’til Monday or Tuesday.”

‘From a very early stage in that sort of Mick-Roy relationship, Roy was privileged, put in a specialised position. When he started giving out about stuff, I had to think “how can he give out, the rest of us turn up all the time?”‘